Knobler’s Latest: Braves, Beckham, Tigers, Rays

Jair Jurrjens and Martin Prado continue to be "as sought after as any players" on the trade market. Atlanta has received calls from 8-10 teams on Jurrjens and "half the teams in baseball" on Prado. Most see Prado as a second base upgrade. The Braves continue to say they don't need to move either player.

It's been well-documented that the White Sox could trade any combination of John Danks, Gavin Floyd, and Carlos Quentin this offseason, but Knobler says they'll listen on Gordon Beckham as well. Many Sox officials are hesitant to concede to rebuilding, despite the fact that GM Ken Williams used that exact word last month.

If the Tigers are going to make a big free agent signing, it's more likely to be Yoenis Cespedes than anyone else.

Comments

Wren trading either Prado and or JJ or both tells me that The Atlanta Braves are looking to stay competitive but contend in 2-3 years instead of now. The Nats are no longer the Expos, Marlins have been saving money for 30 years and Philly is a pain. Atlanta is more than just 1 piece away, with holes in LF,3B, and SS right now. Not being negative but will the Braves cough up the cash for Bourn, I seriously doubt it. Therefore we have 4 primary positions to fill for the future of this Braves organization and Wren and Company seem to heavily be weighing options to improve for the future. It is also time for Chipper to hang up the spikes. Im ready for him to be our hitting coach.

a Jurrjens trade involving Alonso might work, if the Braves believe he can play left field (apparently he lost a ton of weight this off season so he could move better… not that that means he can field)
Pastornicky is our shortstop as of 2013 (most likely) Might just get a rental for this year (hopefully not AGon)
Hoping we keep Prado, and put him at 3rd…
(and we have Andrelton Simmons at SS and Edward Salcedo at 3rd in the lower levels, who are both fairly well rated prospects)
and CF… yea… No clue; a trade would have to be worked out somewhere along the time.

Tough to imagine Alonso in LF for the Braves because of Freeman. I could see a team conceivably sticking Yonder in left for one season, but with Freeman at first for five more years, you’re basically slotting Alonso in the outfield for his age 25-29 seasons. Doesn’t seem plausible given the fact that there are already questions about his ability to do so.

Dont get me wrong I love our infield prospects but they are just that prospects and there is no telling if they will pan out. Salcedo can rake but his D is awful right now and Simmons D is spectacular but will his bat play in the majors. There is a need to stock up on position players.

Which is why Stubbs should be our main focus and getting Todd Frazier would give us another super utility guy.

Stubbs is RH,hit lefties pretty good last year, can play all 3 OF spots, has top of the order speed, and isn’t eligible for free agency til 2016.Prado goes to 3rd and plays super utility with Frazier. Pastornicky comes into the majors next year,until Simmons is ready. If we re-up Bourn(Which we should), then the OF is set with Stubbs, Bourn, & J Hey.

No worries. ATL’s problems are good to have. We have the best commodity in MLB: top of the line young pitching. That currency will be taken everywhere at any time. I’d rather be in this situation than in PHI’s where they have a bunch of aging, expensive, somewhat injury-prone players (Howard, Utley, Rollins (free agent)) and their farm system isn’t producing many great fill-ins (i.e. Dominic Brown). They have their money tied into Halladay, Lee, Howard, and Utley, and Cole Hamels will get paid next season, if he stays.

Even if Bourn goes, we’ll get top draft picks for him once we offer him arbitration and he declines it. No we don’t have a replacement right now, but we can find one. Wren is good about making trades to fill in the holes and I have a feeling that’s what he prefers to signing free agents to substantial contracts which we can’t always do.

HOW ABOUT TRADING PRADO TODD REDMOND AND JJ HOOVER TO THE GIANTS FOR JEFF KEPPINGER ANDRES TORRES AND RAMON RAMIREZ…THIS TRADE WOULD SOLVE TWO PROBLEMS FOR THE BRAVES….IT WOULD GIVE US ANOTHER ELITE SWITCH HITTING CF OR LEFT FIELD THUMPER WHO CAN STEAL JUST AS MANY IF NOT MORE BASES THAN BOURN CAN IN CASE WE CANT RESIGN BOURN AND IT WOULD ALSO GIVE US A REPLACEMENT FOR CHIPPER AT THIRD BASE AND/OR SOMEONE TO REPLACE ALEX GONZALEZ AT SHORTSTOP..IN ADDITION WITH THE ADDITION OF RAMIREZ IT WOULD GIVE US ANOTHER VALUABLE ARM FOR THE BULLPEN(AND AS WE ALL KNOW YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH PITCHING)

didn’t Fangraphs give him top 1 trade value a year ago? Heyward was like top 5, but i am sure is far down the list now. I would love to see a team make a trade for Upton just to see someone actually trade a whole AA team.

While I disagree with your list of untouchables (Mac should be touchable considering we have a talented C coming up, though not ready right now, and McCann faces free agency in ’13 and could be seeking big money).

I do love your sights set on McCutchen or (Justin) Upton. No way ARZ gets rid of Upton, but I could see McCutchen possibly being dealt. If there’s any hope we could get him, he’d be worth the top prospects PIT would want for him: good defense, young, has speed, power, and gets on base a lot. However, Braves fans should be reluctant in dealing the farm for a PIT OF considering what happened (or didn’t happen) with McClouth.

You shouldn’t be sold on a catching prospect that hasn’t seen AA yet. However, you should be optimistic about the progress he’s making. While I love McCann’s bat, his arm is terrible. He throws out less than a quarter of the runners attempting to steal on him for his career. While I still don’t mind it so much because he calls a good game, I don’t know if we should even consider the amount of money that he may ask for knowing Joe Mauer has set a precedent for long-term catching deals. I wouldn’t want to be put in the position that Minnesota is in with Mauer. McCann is going to need to make a position change in the next few years and we don’t really have anywhere for him to go without benching Freeman. Unfortunately, I don’t really see a long-term deal in the cards for him, but I could be wrong.

Don’t worry, fantasy baseball is just around the corner so you can propose inane trades like this one. Terdoslavich is the best 3B prospect we have right now, and he’s just now turning a corner. Trading him would be selling low. When Chipper retires – which ATL has no idea when that can or will happen – if you propose we get rid of Prado and Terdoslavich, whom do you propose we have playing 3B? Exactly. No idea. Quentin plays RF (not LF) and Young Jr. doesn’t play SS, but CF and though he could be the backup we might need, he’s not winning the job in COL and really doesn’t provide us much considering.

With half of MLB inquiring on Prado, we can do better than Quentin, who will be a free agent in 2013 and make probably $6M+ in arbitration in 2012. This is a TERRIBLE DEAL FOR THE BRAVES. No dice.

To be fair, that comparison was something along the lines of ‘he’s more comparable to Cameron Maybin but with more power, less range..’ and some other things that really made it sound like they weren’t all that comparable other than being CF’ers.

I don’t see JJ getting traded (if he is at all) before Buehrle or Wilson sign. The market will be much more defined by that time and teams will be more desperate and willing to give up more. Patience, my son.

The Knobler article says the Braves are telling teams Jurrjens velocity was back up to the mid 90s in the instructional league. I’m sure that’s a little over the top, but if he was back up to a consistent 91-92, the K rate would probably bump back up this year and the expected regression would be softened.

If that is the case, the Braves might be better served by holding on to him for 2 months to show he’s healthy and the velocity lost last year was a temporary thing.

Regardless, there is a perception among fans and probably a number of teams that he lost velocity last year. I tend to believe that 92-94 mph fastball was not always at his disposal last year. So if he’s touching 94 or even 95 early in the year in 2012, there are more teams that might be in the mix as far as trading for him because greater velocity would indicate more sustainable success to certain teams. That doesn’t necessarily make it true, but perception of value plays a rather large part in how much the Braves can expect to get.